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Desperately waiting for goodreads alternative

13 points by rajs123 ↗ HN
Why is Goodreads so bad and the only product out there for book reviews (which is sort of popular). It feels like something developed in ye' old times and barely maintained to this date. Any Goodreads developer in the audience, do you have any insight on this?

8 comments

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PaulHoule
It's part of Amazon, they're number one, why try harder?
d4nyll
There is StoryGraph.

But what do you want from Goodreads that it is not providing? What makes it "bad" in your opinion?

Functionally, it does everything I want it to.

beardyw
Like any of these vox populi sites (like IMDb) their value to me is mostly identifying lemons. Otherwise, you are relying on people who are not like you who feel motivated to share their opinions. To rely on them is to drive yourself toward the middle.
drakonka
A few months ago I started trying Literal.club, which aims to be a simpler book review sharing site (no affiliation). I am not a heavy user, but really like it when I do have occasion to use it to either post or read. Might be worth checking out.
2rsf
There's readrate.com in Russian, I only know about it because it has some integration with PocketBook eReaders.

Goodreads also offers integration with Kindle's, newsletters with book recommendations or "discover a new book" service, and its ads are not very intrusive- what would you like more?

akiranews
It was OK until they deprecated the API keys. Don't worry though I'm planning on making a FOSS Goodreads in the near future!
OnuRC
Sorry to say it but majority of book reviews are just stupid and not informative in anyway. The idea that a book can be reviewed in less than 1-2 page + not knowing and checking background of reviewer is just creates garbage. Similar to Amazon reviews etc.
bwb
Just to 2nd waht d4nyll said, try https://app.thestorygraph.com/ or https://hardcover.app/

Both are great for book tracking, and I think Story Graph has better "social features" then most (and they are about to work on more).

I run Shepherd.com, I am trying to create a book discovery experience like wandering a bookstore. Something I don't think Goodreads or any websites do well. So far I've interviewed 8,000+ authors to get 5 of their favorite book around a topic, theme, or mood. And then I find fun ways to connect them (still very new) -> https://shepherd.com/

Let me now what you think :)